Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

By Cameron Coatney Photos by Kit Palmer and Karl Ockert yle Lewis has finally made it to the big time - sort of. After nearly 20 years of fighting througn the mini ranks, local motocrosses, high-profile National series and numerous injuries, the Rosamond, California, resident has finally landed a full-on factory ride with Suzuki of Japan to contest the ll-race Japane e ational Motocross Series. It's a given that a factory ride here in the United States would be the ultimate, but a deal like this is the next best thing. After all, the guaranteed money can't be bad and neither is the fact that he will be riding a factory Suzuki works bike there are no production rules to speak of in Japan. He will be following in the footsteps of Ronnie Tichenor and Jeff Matiasevich, two expatriates that have done America, and their. employers Suzuki and Kawasaki of Japan, respectively, proud by winning championships - just what they were hired to do. Lewis, has the same goal in his sights for 1997 and has been riding the opening rounds of the AMA Supercross Series in preparation before heading to Japan for more testing in early February. We were able to catch up with Lewis K 14 just before the Seattle Supercross and spoke with him about his motocross career and future. Even now, when most people think of Kyle Lewis they still remember you as that. oleen Yamaha rider that won a few Mickey Thompson Ultracross Series Championships. You've had a long relationship with Noleen, how did that come about? I've was with oleen since the beginning of 1991. I actually busted my wri t at the end of 1990 and I signed my deal with oleen with a broken wrist. I' broke it while practicing. The bike bogged on a step-up-step-down jump and I snapped it in seven places just behind the joint. I didn't need surgery, though, I got lucky. Is that when you started riding the • Mickey Thompson Series? Whose decision was that? Yes. Clark Gones) had a big effort from Yamaha then and his effort was to do the Mickey Thompson Series because Jim Holley was riding for Yamaha. He (HoUey) had won the series, I think, a couple of years. Kawasaki was putting up a good effort there also, so Yamaha wanted to compete there. Mike Craig was doing preth' good there and I think he won a championship in '90 or '91. Then Noleen started competing against Kawasaki in '91. I won the Ultracross Championship in '94 and '95 and won more than anyone in '93 but missed some of the early season due to injuries. How would you characterize racing in the Ultracross series compared to racing an AMA National or Supercross? For ationals, there's no comparison they're 30 minutes plus two laps while. the Ultracrosses were really short. In Supercross, you've got jumps but they were steeper in Ul tracross. It was still easier to do Ultracross, but it was more difficult, on the other hand, because it was more high-speed and flat and you had to hang it out a little more. You have to hang it ou t in both. They're both hard, but I'd say SX is a Jot harder, but they just take different riding styles. You couldn't expect to go and think it's easy (Ultracross) because all of-the jumps are steep because they are the back sides of the car and truck jumps. You had to set your bike up a little differently. With the inverted starting, there was no starting gate. You started with rubber bands with the fast guys in the back. So it always added to the excitement. You had to pass 18 guys to win and I ended up doing that quite a bit. Who were your teammates then? Larry Ward and Larry Brooks. How did you guys all get along? Fin.e. I don't have a problem with either one of them. Did you guys race together and trust each other pretty well? Yeah, of course. You have to trust everyone out there. I mean, we put our lives on the line every time we go out there. We can't go out there thinking you can't trust a guy. There are a couple of guys that get a little antsy and they don't really think, but, whatever. No one's out there trying to kill anybody. Both Larrys and I, we wouldn't try to take each other out and we'd try to pass each other cleanly and go on. We were probably even a little easier on one another. What were the highlights for the '94 and '95 seasons with Noleen Yamaha? Besides the Ultracross Championships, I podiumed at Hangtown (Sacramento) in 1994 and finished seventh. In 1995 I podiumed at Washougal and finished fifth in the series. In 1996, it seemed like you really came alive and were getting good starts, especially at the end of the National season when it counted. What can you attribute that to? I really don't think I had that outstanding of a year. I finished, I think, 16th in the Supercross Series because I was injured. I separated my shoulder at Daytona. I missed three races and when I came back, I came back too early and my shoulder wasn't strong enough and I'd just fall over. For the next four races I was way out of shape. I didn't gain any points and, basically, it was seven races I was out. During the ationals a lot of people were seeing me because I was on TV more. I think it had to do with the fact that I wa-s in a lot of heated battles. There are a few tracks in the middle of the National season that I like a lot, and at the end of the Nationals there are a few tracks I don't care for. Plus, with the new deal with Suzuki, people were keeping their eyes on me a little more. Basically, I was out of my own truck and my mechanic Shane (Drew) and I had the truck to ourselves and we went racing. Clark (Jones) at Nole~n had other deals he was working on, so we didn't have the pressure of the big team, or truck, or the fans and we just went racing and had fun. Did your support significantly drop from Noleen for that year then without the big team effort? The support wasn't any more or any less. It was the same. Yamaha upplied us with the bikes and parts and oleen basically had a budget to support the riders, which last year was just a rider me. It was the same effort but on our own. It wasn't so much of Clark Gones) going to the races every weekend. Earlier you mentioned that you .like some of the National MX tracks and aren't so fond of the others. What's the lowdown there? I like Unadilla ( ew York). I seem to ride well at Hangtown (California). Glen Helen (California) was a good track. It was a little fast but I seem to ride fast tracks a little better. I like Red Bud (Michigan) and it's toward the middle of the Nationals. I always seem to ride well at Washougal (Washington) because it's high speed even though it's not particularly one of my favorite tracks. Unadilla, by far, is my favorite track out there. It's just a real track. There's no crap - in the way. There's just rocks and ruts and hills and bumps - no manmade jumps. I liked running Budds Creek (Maryland) backwards this year. Troy (Ohio), is ridiculous. It's the dumbest ational track on the circuit. It's a Supercross and should be part of that series. At 30 minutes plus two laps none of those promoters would even go over one of those jumps ou t there, let alone do it for 30 minutes. There's just too much room for error as far as I'm concerned. I never do good there and I probably never will. I just always seem to shin.e at the tracks I like and it seems to be right before contract time, so it's always been good for me. When did you find out that Suzuki was looking at you for the Japanese job and were you looking at any other offers at the time? I had spoken with a couple other people, but the Suzuki offer came around at Budds Creek and I felt that being with a team would be to my benefit. You always hear that Suzuki isn't the team to be on or whatever, and a lot of guys were bitter when they left. But I don't have anything but good things to say. They trea t me fair. Who was it that approached you for the Suzuki of Japan ride? Actually, the first person that asked me if I'd be interested was my father-in-law, the truck driver for Team Suzuki, Bob Wright. He said that Hide (Sezaki) wanted to know if I'd be interested in riding for them in Japan. I said, 'Yeah, I'll listen to anything anyone has to say.' A week and a half later, I spoke to Roger DeCoster about it, and it went from there and we worked out a deal. Was Roger DeCoster the main person working out the deal with you? He started it and it left him and went through Hide Sezaki and Suzuki of Japan. I signed my contract just after the first of October. Is it a pretty good deal for you? Yes, it's good. It's not awesome but it's a lot better than going out and fighting for the money like I was doing with Noleen, because I didn't get a salary with them. So now I have guaranteed base money and there's an opportunity to make money on top of that with bonuses. It's a good deal that couldn't have happened at a better time, because J just had a little girl, Kelsey. I can concentrate on my riding a lot more since I don't have to worry about makin.s money. It~s almost too good to be true for me because I didn't do anything outstanding last year, but I felt that I always tried hard. I think I'll be able to do well for Suzuki over in Japan.

• Cover